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OPINION

Desert Sun letter: Do right by our military veterans

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Published 2:02 p.m. PT Nov. 8, 2017

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Volunteers post over 5,100 flags for the 9th annual Healing Field display for Veterans Day on the corner of Dinah Shore Drive and Date Palm Drive in Cathedral City Saturday, November 8, 2014.
Richard Lui/The Desert Sun

On Nov. 11, 1919, President Woodrow Wilson proclaimed Nov. 11 Armistice Day in order to commemorate the end of WWI and the veterans who served.

Each year, Americans gather to celebrate and commemorate the bravery and sacrifice of all United States veterans, on what is now called Veterans Day.

While most people recognize veterans one day a year, veterans service organizations such as the Veterans of Foreign Wars strive to highlight the importance of veterans all year. It is easy to overlook the role that veterans play each day in America, but impossible to forget the ones who made the ultimate sacrifice.

This Veterans Day, I ask you to stop and take a moment to thank a veteran for their service or contact your local Veterans of Foreign Wars Post for ways that you can make a difference in the lives of veterans on this special day, as well as throughout the rest of the year.

Wayne Wright, state commander, Veterans of Foreign Wars of the United States, Department of California

Needless killings

The NRA and its supporters continually blame mental health versus the proliferation of rapid fire weapons with large magazines for the epidemic of mass shootings. The shooter in Texas not only had an assault-style weapon, but he also wore assault-style body armor similar to SWAT officers.

A very small portion of Americans actually own most of the weapons in this country. Because the NRA exercises financial control over our lawmakers, we are all put at risk. Sure one can say that anyone who kills has mental issues, but to say that is the sole issue behind these mass killings is absolutely not true.

Almost 90 percent of Americans favor tougher background checks, and amazingly 75 percent of NRA members favor tougher background reviews as well. A little over 70 percent of Americans are against these military-style weapons. What happened to democracy?

Donald Trump spoke from his trip in Japan about the shootings in Texas and the only thing he spoke about was mental health. Oh, by the way, in his continued attack on anything Obama, Trump rolled back a regulation that would ban selling weapons to anyone receiving mental health benefits from Social Security.